AAUW Director of Public Policy and Government Relations Lisa Maatz reported from the Democratic National Convention this week and from the Republican National Convention last week. See her updates at AAUW Dialog, on Facebook, and @LisaMaatz on Twitter.

Politics matter. Don’t ever doubt it. We’ve all been through two weeks of carefully scripted theater, but politics and policy still matter. Leaders matter, and role models can still make a difference. This was abundantly clear in Tampa, Florida, where people gathered even in the face of a hurricane. It’s been true here in Charlotte, North Carolina, where grinning boys waved and yelled “four more years” at me as I walked by with convention signs. It heartens me that people are paying attention, but I wasn’t sure if that was true beyond the convention bubble.

Charlotte was buzzing with anticipation on Thursday, the culminating day of the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were speaking in the arena that evening. First lady Michelle Obama and fair pay advocate Lilly Ledbetter headlined the Women’s Caucus in the morning. Cabinet secretaries walked the streets, and governors roamed the convention floor. Marc Anthony sang the national anthem, former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords lead the Pledge of Allegiance, and Mary J. Blige did an amazing cover of U2’s “One” to a standing ovation. Celebrities were all around town despite the MTV Awards being held at the same time.

I spent the day surrounded by important people, but it was an interaction with a Rite Aid cashier named Sharon that will be my defining memory of Charlotte. I was in the checkout lane buying some medicinal chocolate and tweeting madly, just as I’d done all week. As she rang me up, Sharon asked good questions: What did I think of the convention, and will it matter in November? It brought me out of my Twitter fog and into an engaging conversation.

As we were chatting, it occurred to me that I still had an extra ticket for the evening’s festivities. In a wonderful twist of fate, I ended up with two DNC credentials every day. One of these I would typically trade for other tickets or give to friends who had not been as lucky. But as I talked to Sharon, I had an epiphany. Sharon needed to see Obama speak. More than anyone I’d seen or talked to that day, Sharon deserved to see Obama speak.

I asked Sharon about her schedule — when did the store close, and when was her shift over? In retrospect, she probably thought I was a bit odd, but I was trying to see if maybe I should offer the credential. It was the big ticket of the week, and spare credentials were few and far between. Finally, I just said, “I have an extra pass for tonight. Would you like to be in the hall to hear the president speak?” At first, I think Sharon didn’t believe me. She stopped the transaction and just looked at me. “What?” she said. I repeated my offer and held out the green credential, which was covered with official DNC logos.

Sharon took the credential from me like I was offering her my first-born child. She held it carefully and just looked at it for a moment, clearly speechless. When she looked up, she said, “I think I may cry.” In fact, tears were already running down her face. We clasped hands and introduced ourselves, and I told her I hoped she could get off work early enough to go to the arena and grab a good seat. By this time, her co-workers had gathered around. This had become an event, when I really was just offering something in the moment. I didn’t do it for me — it just seemed like the right thing to do. It occurred to me that Sharon was exactly who needed to be in that arena for the president’s speech. Not well-heeled special interests or the party faithful or cynical lobbyists who take such opportunities for granted. Sharon.

I could tell that this opportunity meant the world to her, that it might be something Sharon told her grandchildren about someday. But no matter how important it was for her, in the end it was the sharing of this experience — the simple communion between complete strangers over the importance of politics to our everyday lives — that was the true highlight of both conventions.

The AAUW Action Fund’s It’s My Vote: I Will Be Heard voter education and turnout campaign represents an unprecedented investment in making women’s voices heard in the 2012 election. Follow us on Twitter and on Tumblr for the latest updates, and check out our biweekly Campaign Update for news, resources, and ideas.

A young woman walks into her polling place to vote — only she’s missing her identification card. She might not be allowed to cast her ballot.

But the poll worker gives her a pass. He remembers her from the primary election, when so few young people showed up to vote.

Sandra Fluke tells this true and personal story in her pep talk for the AAUW Action Fund’s It’s My Vote: I Will Be Heard campaign. Her tale rings especially true this election, a time when young women need to raise their voices and vote. Fluke also reminds us to research the voter-ID requirements before showing up to the polls this November 6 — a sentiment echoed by AAUW Director of Public Policy and Government Relations Lisa Maatz, who gave voters her own pep talk last week.

AAUW Director of Public Policy and Government Relations Lisa Maatz will report from the Democratic National Convention this week and reported from the Republican National Convention last week. Follow her updates at AAUW Dialog, on Facebook, and @LisaMaatz on Twitter.

I’m in my second week representing AAUW at the political conventions, and the list of big speeches I’ve seen continues to grow. On Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention, I heard Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski make a push for pay equity, AAUW friend Sandra Fluke talk about birth control access, and Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren and former President Bill Clinton give lessons on the budget. Read a selection of my live reactions from Twitter below, or check out the full story. Also, catch up on Tuesday’s tweets, and check back on Friday for my final post. Let me know what you think!

Although women are now entering higher education in larger numbers than men and represent the breadwinners or co-breadwinners in a majority of families, pay equity is still not an issue that we can cross off the agenda. According the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 2010 median weekly earnings for women working full time was $669, while men in full-time positions earned $824. Over the course of a year, that adds up to a difference of almost $8,000. While the figures vary depending on education level and other factors, the bottom line is that women still aren’t making equal pay for equal work.

There are legislative means for achieving progress in pay equity. The Paycheck Fairness Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives in the 111th Congress and fell only two votes short of overcoming a procedural hurdle in the Senate. The Senate is considering the bill again, and AAUW is gearing up to fight for its passage. You can help by reaching out to your senator and urging her or him to co-sponsor the bill (S. 797).

The issue has also been front and center in the media. Rachel Maddow argued recently on Meet the Press that those who think the pay gap is a myth have a different “factual understanding of the world.” Part of that understanding is that women should be paid equally for performing the same work as men. AAUW Director of Public Policy and Government Relations Lisa Maatz spoke out on CNN, which aired a fact-checking segment on the clash between Maddow and Republican strategist Alex Castellanos in an effort to dispel confusion about the matter.

AAUW has long fought to end wage discrimination and to close the persistent wage gap that affects women of all ages, races, and education levels, regardless of their family decisions. Recent AAUW research uses concrete, state-by-state data to show that sex discrimination not only continues to be a problem in the workplace but also affects the incomes of all women. It’s time to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act and make progress toward ending gender pay discrimination.

This post was written by AAUW Public Policy and Government Relations Intern Madeline Shepherd.

Women make up nearly half of the U.S. labor force and play a vital role in the nation’s economy. Yet women, on average, make less on the dollar than men, and the gap is even greater for women of color and women with disabilities. Lower pay means less economic security not only for women but also for the families who depend on them.

Join us for a Twitter chat about equal pay for women on Friday, April 20, at noon EDT by following the hashtag #EqualPayChat.

You’ll be able to ask equal opportunity experts questions about the current pay gap and how to equip women with the necessary resources to make informed career decisions. During the discussion, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) will also discuss its new Equal Pay App Challenge.

Department of Labor (@USDOL) Women’s Bureau Director Sara Manzano-Díaz and Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Patricia Shiu will host this conversation along with National Equal Pay Task Force partners from the Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. They will also welcome special guests Lisa Maatz (@LisaMaatz), public policy and government relations director from AAUW, and Latinos in Social Media (LATISM) Vice-Chair and App Challenge judge Elianne Ramos (@ergeekgoddess).

Two weeks ago, AAUW hosted Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke at our national office for a Re:Action panel discussion on birth control. It was our way of making sure that she had a platform to speak and be heard since she wasn’t allowed to testify at a recent hearing about contraception at the House of Representatives. That panel featured five men and no women.

So when talk show host Rush Limbaugh made blatantly sexist and offensive comments about Fluke last week, we took it personally. AAUW Director of Public Policy and Government Relations Lisa Maatz put it simply: “His aggressive personal insults and unnecessary coarsening of the public debate are unacceptable.”

Limbaugh’s “apology” on Saturday has not stopped his show from bleeding more sponsors. His remarks outraged women (and men of good conscience) across the country — probably because it wasn’t much of an apology. Just ask Fluke. He continued attacking her today, saying that she attended Georgetown Law only to “force them to abandon religious beliefs.” This completely misrepresents Fluke’s story and shows that Limbaugh has yet to learn his lesson.

On their own, Limbaugh’s comments are reprehensible. What makes them action-worthy is how widespread their effect continues to be. Limbaugh basically told his audience of millions that a woman who uses contraception and speaks out about it is a slut. This was his attempt to shame Fluke into silence. And it was a clear message to women everywhere: Speak out, and you’ll be punished in the same way.

Limbaugh may not listen to women, but his apology on Saturday shows that he pays attention to sponsors. Make sure he gets the message that women won’t stand for these kinds of attacks. Call, tweet, or write a Facebook update telling his sponsors that they only hurt themselves by supporting intolerant and offensive commentary.

It’s tough to pin down an exact list of sponsors, especially because some are local and others are national. To the best of our knowledge, here is a list of current national sponsors that have yet to pull support from Limbaugh’s show. Take action and tell them to stop supporting Limbaugh and his vicious rhetoric.

Need ideas for tweets and Facebook updates? Make sure to link to this blog post and use the hashtag #StopRush. And tweet at Limbaugh himself using his handle, @rushlimbaugh. Here’s some sample language in case you need inspiration.

Let companies know they should not support Rush Limbaugh’s anti-women commentary with sponsorship — join me in standing up for Sandra Fluke and for women everywhere by contacting these sponsors today http://bit.ly/xtnNlE

It’s been hard to turn on the news over the past few weeks without hearing the debate over women’s access to contraception. This debate was further inflamed by last week’s House of Representatives hearing on birth control that featured five men and no women on its opening panel. Sandra Fluke, a law student at Georgetown University, was scheduled to testify about how women are harmed when denied access to birth control. But she was turned away by the chair of the committee, who believed she was “not appropriate or qualified” to testify. Fluke’s exclusion meant that no witness would speak directly to women’s health and that no woman’s voice would be heard in the opening panel.

AAUW decided to give Fluke a voice by inviting her to speak at a public forum on Wednesday night. Featuring Fluke, Catholics for Choice Domestic Program Director Sara Hutchinson, Washington Post writer Ann Gerhart, and AAUW’s own top policy adviser Lisa Maatz, the panel talked about why access to birth control — a right most U.S. women take for granted — is still threatened in 2012 and how women can mobilize to make sure they aren’t silenced any longer.

In addition to online activism, Gerhart urged people to take their outrage offline. “Just saying you like something on Facebook is not activism,” she said. “You have to have your boots on the ground and show up.” Hutchinson encouraged the crowd to “keep saying what you know is true,” even in the face of criticism. Maatz predicted that this will become an election issue and “could very well change who gets elected.”

This debate shows no signs of ending. On Thursday morning, House Democrats held a Democratic Policy Committee hearing featuring Fluke, who spoke about the need for accessible, affordable contraception. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that more than 300,000 women have told Congress that they support contraception and the need for women’s voices when lawmakers talk about women’s health. Pelosi also told the packed room that House Administration Committee Chair Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) had denied the use of congressional resources to record and broadcast the event, an about-face from normal House procedure. This was just another attempt to silence Fluke and women’s voices.

AAUW’s event may be over, but we’re not done with this issue. We’d love to hear from you, either through comments on the blog, on our Facebook page, or through Twitter using the hashtag #wmnreact.

Women will make themselves heard, whether it’s through social media, talking to friends and family, contacting elected officials, or turning out on election day. It’s our vote and our voice — we will be heard.